Which less-achieving boxers do you have a soft spot for?

the top fighters at MW at the time - Hopkins, Williams, Martinez, taylor - ALL had a piece of each other in some regard. the reason why they did is they fought on the biggest stage.
NOT ONE of the Abraham, sturm, ottke, michalweski, stieglitz brigade fought even ONE elite fighter at their preferred weight. the one common denominator is that they restricted their fights almost exclusively to Germany.

do you think Martinez would have reached the heights that he did if he only fought in argentina and spain? hell no.
do you think golovkin would have reached the heights he did if he stayed in sturm's stable? hell no.

look, I know Abraham wasn't afraid of a challenge.
the fact he entered the super six showed that.
but to suggest that pavlik ducked him because he had one fight in the US at MW is just ridiculous

 

Darnell Boon - Gatekeeper ATG?

This guy was a G. He would step in the ring with anyone. Plus he made Ward's legs stutter something funny.

 

Pavlik didn't duck him because of your reason. He ducked him imo because at the time Abraham was one of the pfp best punchers in the world pfp and Arum came out and told Pavlik that the Abraham unification doesn't make "cents"!!! And Pavlik accepted Arums decision.

 

pavlik faced Hopkins, taylor (twice) and Miranda in the space of 5 fights
name me 4 of Abraham's best opponents he faced in 31 fights at MW, never mind 5, that make you think Kelly pavlik ducked him but not Hopkins, taylor or Miranda

I just don't understand how you can defend him
just one fight in the US shows no intent in chasing the best fights in the division, and it is a common tactic for german/german-based fighters

 

Jessie Vargas
Amir Khan
Jason Sosa
Andre Berto
Chris Algieri
Leonard Bundu
Dereck Chisora
Stephen Smith

 

That was at MW. Abraham had to go to SMW because Pavlik wanted no parts of Abraham at MW. This has nothing to do with one fight in America.

 

Victor Ortiz... At one time a titlist and #3 WW so it sounds wrong to call him a lesser fighter but his shortcomings are pretty legendary. I just like to watch the guy fight I don't know what else to say. He has been in some bangin' wars.

 

with regards to MW it has everything to do with it
but I can't make you see reason if you want to believe otherwise

 

I know exactly what you're saying, but Abraham wasn't one of those fighters just because he was based there. Abraham looked for challenges. That's where we differ.

 

I agree with that. SMW tourney showed he was prepared to roll the dice
I think where we disagree is whether he did enough to earn a crack at pavlik

 

used to like watching ken lakusta.

 

The sport was begging for the fight when both were at MW and even then Abraham was having trouble making 160...and tbh I believe that Pavlik might've taken the fight...but we all know that Arum didn't want to put him in with Abraham. My beef is had Pavlik said, Arum make the fight..the fight gets made. Arum wanted to keep milking Pavlik.

 

we have to agree to disagree
Abraham's MW resume was extremely poor leading up to the brutal Miranda fight, so he remained a high risk-low reward fight